MONTREAL – Damien Brunner was certain that his five-week goal-scoring drought had ended at a perfect time.

Even after the Devils had fallen to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, Monday night at Bell Centre, the Swiss winger couldn’t believe his shot at the left post early in the third period did not go in.

“When I shot it I thought it was in,” said Brunner, who now has no goals in 15 games. “I didn’t think it hit the post. On the replay I saw the defenseman put his stick there. He even got it out of the air. That’s just bad luck, I guess.”

It was undoubtedly a game-changer, because even though Michael Ryder ended his own goal-scoring drought at 11 games to tie the score two minutes later, the Devils lost an opportunity to bury the Canadiens.

“We missed a couple of open-netters that their defensemen made great plays on,” said goalie Martin Brodeur, referring to Brunner and an earlier chance by Jaromir Jagr. “At the end I think that made the difference.”

P.K. Subban was the Canadiens defenseman who cleared the puck both times, coming to the rescue of goalie Carey Price.

Devils owner Josh Harris and his son, Thomas, had traveled to Montreal with the team. With the Devils trailing, 2-1, in the third period, they were undoubtedly hoping for a comeback.

Steve Bernier, who scored the overtime winner Saturday night against the Sabres, came close to tying the score at 2:48 of the third. Price stopped his initial shot but then knocked the puck, which had dropped just outside the goal line, into the left post.

Brunner attempted to put it inside the post but Subban got there and cleared it. A video review determined the puck did not cross the goal line.

Ryder, a former Canadiens winger, did tie it when he used defenseman Douglas Murray as a screen. Ryder’s shot beat Price on his glove side at 4:42. It was hs first goal in 12 games and second in 19.

“It was definitely frustrating,” Ryder said of his slump, “but it was good to get that goal to tie the game. Unfortunately we let them get another one a few shifts later. We played well overall. We just came up a little short.

“(Price) made a lot of huge saves for them. I played with him before and he seems to steal games sometimes. He made a lot of saves at key moments.”

Price stopped 28 shots.

Brodeur (14 saves) robbed Brendan Gallagher on a shot from the slot at 8:34, but Alex Galchenyuk scored the go-ahead goal at 9:34 when he tipped Alexei Emelin's shot while standing at the right corner of the crease.

“I didn’t see it. The puck went out to the point. I tried to look through traffic and he just shot it wider,” Brodeur said. “He made a pass. I don’t know if he wanted to do that. It was a pretty easy goal for Galchenyuk.”

It was one of several costly breakdowns by the Devils.

“We got running around in our own end. (Andrei) Loktionov, (Jacib) Josefson and Ryder got stuck out there, a little running around and they exploited it,” coach Pete DeBoer noted.

“It was a hard fought game. I thought we came to play. You couldn’t ask much more from our group effort-wise. I’m disappointed we didn’t get the result we deserved, but they found a way to exploit a couple of situations and put some pucks in the net. I thought we did enough to win the game and it didn’t happen.”

They will have another chance when they host the Canadiens at Prudential Center Wednesday night.